Second Times a Charm
by DizZyFiction
Summary: I started writing this story after I heard about the talks for a new movie. I heard it was going to deal with paranormal activity, and I took it from there...looks like it might be a long one. Rating may change in later chapters.
1. Five Years

Deputy Director Kersh had never expected to make the phone call he was about to make. It had been 5 years since he had been bothered with the X-Files, or anything like it for that matter. The last he knew, Agent Fox Mulder was hiding somewhere in New Mexico. He had disappeared, leaving his past behind him. His only like to that past was his partner, Dana Scully, and not even she knew his exact whereabouts. In order to keep her safe, they had decided to never speak of it. Occasionally she would receive an unmarked letter in the mail, likely delivered by one of the lone gunmen. In it would be a single plain ticket to New Mexico. When she arrived Mulder would meet her at the airport, because he could. He was safe there.

D.D. Kersh waited patiently in his office. The case that sat in front of him was unlike anything he had ever seen before, or maybe it had just been too long since anything strange or out of the ordinary had come his way. There were two sharp knocks at his door.

"Sir, Agent Scully is here to see you." Her presence was made known as soon as she walked through the door. Her ability to play with the big boys had always been impressive.

"I came as soon as I received your message. What's the problem?" She stood there with a sense of urgency in her voice. By the look of D.D. Kersh's eyes she could tell something was wrong.

"Agent Scully, please sit down. This case was sent to me from Massachusetts. Three teenagers went missing the past October 31st. The only remains were three fingers, each believed to belong to one of the teens."

"Who would do that to three kids?" Scully responded with a disgusted look on her face.

"I'm assuming there are not witnesses?" She added.

D.D. Kersh slid a photo across the desk to her. It was 19 year old Megan O'Farrell, the only witness to the crime. She had severe lacerations all over her face.

"She was able to get away from who or whatever got the others. Someone found her on the side of the road and brought her to a local hospital. She claims that whatever attacked her and her friends was not human." The last sentence struck Scully immediately. He had just handed her an X-File, something she had not expected to deal with.

"Agent Scully, I need you to get a hold of Agent Mulder and convince him that he needs to come back. I want to send you both out to Massachusetts.

Later that night

"(typing on laptop) The witness, Megan O'Farrell claims to have fought free from some type of paranormal force. She escaped and was later brought to a local hospital. She suffered severe lacerations to her face and neck."

Scully shut the screen to her laptop and let her head rest on her pillow. The t.v. screen flashed brightly in the background. Her thoughts were apparent through the expressions on her face. She knew what she had to do. She rolled over and reached for the phone. Dialing the number carefully, all she could do was hope for the best.

"Is this a booty call?" Mulder's voice answered from the other end. She couldn't help but slightly smile. No matter what you did to the man, he would always have his sense of humor.

"Mulder it's a little more important than that." Mulder sighed on the other end, he didn't seem to think that was possible.

"Go ahead, lay it on me." He sat up out of his bed, preparing himself to listen intently.


	2. Back in Business

"Mulder, D.D. Kersh called me into his office today. He presented me with a case; the case is an X-File." Both ends of the phone fell silent for a moment.

"Scully if you want me to come back, that's all you have to say. You don't have to make up some elaborate sto…" She cut him off before his ego got too big.

"D.D. Kersh asked me to make you aware of this case. Bottom line Mulder, this case needs you. You're guaranteed safety, your name has been cleared." She knew what she was talking about.

"I don't want to go back there only to find myself in jail again." Scully was almost offended that he did not trust her.

"Don't you think I made sure that wouldn't happen? I would never put your life at risk Mulder, you of all people should know this." She took a stern tone to her voice.

"Alright, well someone needs to buy me a plain ticket cause I sure as hell don't have the money for one."

The tension is D.D. Kersh's office was very tense. He and Agent Scully sat there in complete silence. It was now 10:13, Mulder was only three minutes late for their meeting, but every minute that passed seemed like an eternity for Scully.

"Deputy Director, uh…Agent Fox Mulder is here to see you." Kersh's secretary had obviously been left out in the dark. When Mulder did finally come into the room, he looked confident. He wore his navy blue suit proudly. He just looked like he belonged there.

"Well doesn't this feel like old time?" Mulder said with a smile as he extended his hand to D.D. Kersh.

"Agent Mulder, I think you input is important to this case. I know it's been a while, but I trust you and the rest of the X-Files agents." Mulder shook his head in approval.

"I think this is the first time you and I have ever agreed on anything." He added with a smile.

"Good, then you'll be happy to hear I'm sending you to Massachusetts tomorrow."

Scully had just sat down in a giant warm bubble bath she had drawn for herself. This was something she had been looking forward to for three days now. It was just her, the bubbles, and a glass of red wine. All was well until someone started knocking on her door. She had a sneaking suspicion as to who it was. As she approached the door, the knocking persisted. She wasn't surprised when she opened the door.

"Sorry Scully, it's just that my apartment seems to be sitting in a pile now. Apparently Donald Trump is building another billion dollar fortress there." Scully couldn't help but giggle a bit. She had forgotten to mention that to her partner. She moved out of his way, and let him in. He looked a little pathetic with his one suitcase. He immediently went to the couch and bounced up and down on it a bit, testing out the comfort.

"You know Scully, I did a little investigating on my own." He yelled to her. She was in the linen closet getting him a pillow and blanket.

"Mulder, I'm shocked." She replied very sarcastically.


	3. Unnatural

"The house those teenagers just happened to wander in to that night is actually quite popular among the town. Supposedly, a family of witches lived there in the late 1700's. They were killed though, suspected of murder." It had taken him a long time to find anything on the house. He had searched several websites, and even called the town's local police.

"Mulder, don't even tell me that you think some sort or paranormal force is to blame for the disappearance of these kids." Scully almost laughed as she said this. It had been so long since she had been involved with a case that couldn't be solved by DNA or real life evidence. He took in a very deep breath and let it out loudly. He had forgotten what it was like to have a skeptical partner. He guessed she had forgotten that he was always right.

"Listen, all I know is three kids are missing, and no one has any clue as to where they could be. You and I both know that stranger things have happened."

The agent arrived at Megan's hospital at around 1:00 pm the next afternoon.

"Hi, I'm Federal Agent Fox Mulder and this is my partner Dana Scully (they flash there badges). We need to know the room number of a patient named Megan O'Farrell." The nurse at the desk saw there badges and seemed to get a little intimidated. She was quick to answer them.

"I can show you to her room, its number 209." The nurse came out from behind her desk and led the agents down a long hallway. It was very bright, the fluorescent light bounced off the white walls. There was also an eerie silence among the place. No one was in the halls, not even a passing doctor.

"She still very shook up. He cuts are healing very nicely, but she is having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. I'm sure she's haunted by what she has seen." Mulder looked down at Scully when the nurse said the word 'haunted'. He wanted to be right so bad.

As they entered the room, Megan was laying over her side with her back facing the agents. She was looking out her window. It was a beautiful bright day out, it was obvious she didn't want to be stuck inside. Scully walked over to her slowly to see if she was awake.

"Don't worry, I'm awake. I don't sleep much lately." Scully jumped back a bit in surprise, she had not expected her to say anything.

"Are you here to ask me more questions?" She asked with a bit of an annoyed tone to her voice.

"Agent Scully and I are from the F.B.I, we've been given your case." Megan was now sitting up in her bed looking at both agents.

"Can you give us your account of what happened that night?" Scully asked as she sat at the end of Megan's bed.

"My friends and I thought it would be cool to go to this house they had told me about. They said it was haunted and all this other crap. They wanted to see if they could get in touch with anyone. It sounded stupid, but I didn't really have anything else to do. We were sitting on the floor with some lit candles, and Jamie started chanting stuff. Within like a minute the house started to shake. At first it seemed really cool. Then this light came from the ceiling. We all were looking at it when suddenly Jamie went flying up towards it. She was screaming so loud…" Scully passed the tissues to Megan who was beginning to get upset.

"The next thing I knew I was being pulled up too. This cloud surrounded me. I saw all these horrible faces. They got so close to me. I felt them ripping at my face. Then all of the sudden for some reason I fell. I don't know if I broke free or what, but I ran. The next thing I knew I was here." Mulder and Scully sat in silence for a moment, taking in the story. It was obvious by her emotions that something unnatural had happened that night.


	4. Help Wanted

"A real looker isn't it?" Mulder joked as he and Scully approached the Cromwell house. It was located on a back road about fifteen minutes from town.

"Are you sure we didn't take a wrong turn, because this house looks like June Cleaver should be greeting us at the door?" Scully remarked sarcastically. Yes every once in a while she let her funny side slip.

"This house is in amazing shape. Mulder, you said it's been around since the late 1700's?" She continued. He stopped walking and opened a manila envelope he had been holding.

"These are some real estate records for the house. Each family that has lived in this house has spent several thousand dollars on it. It doesn't look like any of them had any luck however. None of the families lived in the house for more then two years." Mulder closed the file and put it back in his jacket.

"OoOo." Mulder joked, waving his hands around like a ghost. Scully began walking towards the house again.

"Mulder, didn't the local police close this area off to the public?" She asked as she pointed to the door. It was open a crack. Both agents pulled out there weapons and entered the house slowly. There was nothing that struck them as being strange immediately. The inside of the house looked quite welcoming actually. The sun shined through the bare windows casting small rainbow reflections on the hardwood floor. They both checked out the downstairs and found nothing. Mulder motioned to follow him up the stairs. When they reached the top of the stairs they split apart. Scully went through two empty rooms, and then entered a room that looked like it had last belonged to a baby. There were still dusty boxes stacked on top of one another. She could hear someone or something moving behind one of the boxes. She slowly approached the stack with her gun drawn. As she stepped forward the wooden floor creaked loudly. A black cat ran frightened out of the room. She let out a deep breath.

As she crossed the hallway she didn't immediately see her partner.

"Mulder?" She yelled out into the rooms.

"Scully, I'm in here!" He yelled back to her from inside one of the closets. As she approached him she could see that he had found some sort of hidden doorway.

"Where do you think it goes?" She asked him.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." He replied. He started down the stairs. She had been afraid that would be his answer. The stairs were stone and very close together. It was a very narrow staircase, the stone walls around them were damp from the humidity. It was completely dark besides the flashlight Mulder held. The further they got down the stairs, the more they could see of the hidden room. It was rather large, the floor was covered in puddles and old candle sticks.

"So they weren't neat freaks." Mulder joked. He walked cautiously towards the middle of the room where a single table stood. He looked at the surface and shined the light down on it. Both agents looked at each other.

"Well at least we know what we are dealing with now."

As soon as they left the house and got into there rental car, Scully picked up her phone and dialed feverishly. It only took a few rings for the other end to answer.

"Monica Reyes." She always sounded so chipper when picking up her phone.


	5. Only In The Dark

Monica sat quietly at her desk as she read over the daily paper. She and Agent Doggett had just finished up a case the day before, and were taking it a bit easy on that particular day.

"Hey Mon, can I have the sports section when your done?" John asked her from across the room. He had been playing around with his computer. She threw the sports section at him without hesitation. A few pages went a stray which made them both laugh a little bit.

"It's okay you can have it right now. Since when do I give a crap about sports." She replied with a smile. John got up and picked up the few pages that had scattered around the floor.

Monica was concentrating on an article in the paper when her cell phone began ringing. Both she and John laughed every time it rang, she had set the ringer to the theme from Mission Impossible. She rummaged through her bag looking for the phone. It always managed to sit at the bottom of her bag.

"Monica Reyes." She stated her name as she answered the phone. The voice on the other side didn't surprise her until she heard what it had to say.

"Dana, could you slow down a bit? Does Skinner know you called me? Okay, then I guess we'll see you there. Wait, you're with who? Okay…uh bye." Monica hung up her phone and tossed it on to her desk. Her expression showed John that something major was going on.

"Well, it looks like we're only going to get one day of rest John. That was Dana calling me from Massachusetts, and get this. She's with Agent Mulder." John practically let his jaw drop to the floor. He hadn't heard that name in a very long time.

"There on a case, and Skinner is sending you and I there tomorrow afternoon." As she finished that last sentence she got up out of her chair and grabbed her jacket.

"I have to go home and pack, who knows how long we'll be out there." She grabbed her keys from her desk and walked out the door. John grabbed his jacket quickly.

"Mon, wait for me, you drove me here this morning!" He called to her as he followed her down the hall.

Megan lie quietly in her hospital room. She had drifted off to sleep about an hour ago. The drugs they had given her gave her no other choice, not that she didn't appreciate the sleep. Out of the darkness of her room appeared the shaped of a person. It was completely dark and a bit fuzzy. As it got closer to Megan she could feel the cold that it emitted. When she opened her eyes the figure was floating directly above her. She look straight into its eyes. They were very sunken in and bloodshot. They had no color to them other then the red of the blood vessels. She tried to scream but couldn't harbor up enough courage to do so. She closed her eyes tightly and screamed as loudly as she could. After about thirty seconds the light to her room turned on and a nurse came running in. The figure had disappeared.

"Megan, what happened? What's wrong?" The nurse asked nervously.

"You have to call Agents Mulder and Scully immediately."


	6. She'll Only Speak to You

Mulder snapped out of his sleeping state as soon as he heard the ringing of his cell phone. It was 2:30 in the morning and he had fallen asleep while watching old re-runs of the Golden Girls.

"Uh hm…Mulder." He made an effort to clear the sleepiness out of his voice. It didn't work as he had planned.

"Agent Mulder, I'm sorry to wake you. This is Nurse Johnson from the hospital. Megan has had an episode and requested that you and your partner be called. Mulder did not hesitate with his response.

"We'll be right out there." He didn't even wait for the nurse to respond. He snapped his phone shut and threw on a pair of jeans. Scully was sleeping soundly in the room next to him. She woke as soon as she heard him knocking on her door.

"Scully it's me, open up!" He yelled to her from the other side. She rolled out of bed and put her robe on.

"Mulder, what's wrong?" She asked her partner as soon as she opened the door. He looked rather disheveled. His hair was sticking up all over the place and he was wearing an old New York Knicks t-shirt.

"You gotta get dressed. I just got a call from the hospital, something happed and Megan wants us to be there." Like her partner, Scully did not take much convincing. She shut her door for a moment, and emerged wearing a pair of jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt. They both ran to there rental car and got in. Mulder decided to drive.

As soon as they reached the hospital they noticed that no local police had been called to the scene. This was rather strange. They ran through the entrance where they were immodestly greeted by the same nurse they had met earlier that day.

"She's okay, but something scared her. I'm not really cure what happened. She says she'll only speak to you." The nurse spoke as she lead them to Megan's room. When they got there, Megan was sitting up in her bed. She had her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was still visible shaken.

"I'm really sorry. I…I didn't know who else to tell. You two were the only ones who didn't laugh at me when I told you my story." Mulder and Scully walked directly over to the shaking girl. Her eyes were a bit glazed over, and her face was still puffy from the tears she had obviously cried.

"Why don't you tell us what happened?" Scully asked the girl calmly, running a hand down the length of her blonde hair.

"I was asleep, and when I woke up it was really cold in here. I think that's what woke me up. When I opened my eyes there was someone above me. Its eyes were…I don't even know how to describe it. It just kept trying to get closer to me. I finally screamed and that's when the nurse came in. By the time she was here it was gone though. I know I sound crazy but you have to believe me." Megan was now crying again out of desperation. Scully handed her a box of tissues that had been on the table next to her bed. Mulder walked around to the other side of the bed.

"That's where it was standing when I first saw it." Mulder was looking down at the floor.

"Scully, can you come take a look at this?" Mulder asked as he leaned down. HE was examining a substance on the floor.

"This looks like some type of plasma to me. Something commonly left behind by the paranormal or ghosts. I think she got slimed." Scully gathered some of the substance into a plastic baggie.

"I can send this to the lab, but for some reason I don't think the results are going to make any difference."


	7. Homecoming

Sorry about the spelling errors in the last chapter, I'm kinda sick and I think it's affecting my brain

Agents Doggett and Reyes arrived in Massachusetts early the next afternoon. They checked into the same hotel that Mulder and Scully were staying in. As soon as they settled into there room, all of the agents met up at the Cromwell house. Doggett and Reyes needed to be caught up on all of the information.

"This is the big bad house you were talkin about?" Doggett asked with his usual doubting Thomas tone to his voice.

"This reminds me of the house I grew up in." Reyes added

"Yeah well you can be sure it's nothing like that house. Scully and I checked the place out yesterday and found some pretty strange stuff." Mulder led them all through the front door. The house still looked calm and safe. Mulder wasted no time going upstairs. He led them directly to the secret door he had found the day before. When they reached the closet, both he and Scully were surprised.

"Well, this is where the door was. Looks like somebody is trying to cover up this dirty little secret." The spot where he had found the door was now just a solid wall.

"Or something." Reyes added as she walked over to the wall. She examined it for only a moment before kicking the wall in with all of her strength.

"Jackpot." Scully said with a sarcastic tone. Reyes had kicked open the exact spot where the door had been. They could all now see the stairway. With a little help from Doggett and Mulder the door was back. Mulder again led everyone down the small, narrow staircase.

"Watch your step." He yelled up to the top. He could hear John swearing under his breath after he had slipped.

"The table is in the center of the room. It looked like it may have been used for some sort of sacrificial practice." Scully informed the group as she shined her flashlight on to the table. Reyes walked over to the table cautiously. The room they were in was just down right spooky.

"The pentagram in the middle definitely suggests some sort of witchcraft going on down here." Monica examined the table further, looking at the markings and stains on the table.

"These are definitely blood stains on the table." She pointed to several blotches on the wooden table. Suddenly, something fell from the ceiling, almost hitting her right in the head. She fell to the floor trying to avoid contact with the piece of rock.

"Dana, watch out!" She yelled from the floor. A piece of rock fell from the ceiling right above Dana. Mulder saw this and pushed her out of the way. They both landed with a loud thump on the ground.

"Let's get the hell out of here." Doggett said nervously. He grabbed Reyes hand and led her to the stairs. Mulder and Scully followed quickly behind them. All four of the agents ran directly out of the house.

"Whatever inhabits that house does not want anything to do with us." Reyes said as she brushed off the dirt on her shirt.

"You're telling me." Scully added as she looked down at the area below her neck. She moved the crucifix necklace aside, only to see that an imprint of it had been burnt into her.

"Oh my God, Dana, are you okay? Reyes asked concerned.

"Yeah, I felt a burning sensation there right before the first rock fell." She rubbed the burnt area with her fingers. It wasn't as bad as it looked.

"It's pretty obvious to me that anyone involved in this matter is in danger. Megan gets out of the hospital this afternoon. I'm going to the hospital right now to see if anything else has happened to her." Mulder ran off to his rental car, leaving to other agents behind. They would take Doggett's car.

Agent Mulder did exactly what he said he would and went directly to the hospital to pick Megan up. She was already outside waiting for a taxi.

"Call the company back, I'll bring you home." Megan could tell by the urgency in his voice that something was wrong.

"What's going on Agent Mulder?" She was obviously scared. She had good reason to be.

"I'll bring you to your apartment and you can get what you need. After that I am checking you into the motel the other Agents and I are staying in. I think it's our safest option." Megan did not try to argue with him. Safety was what she was looking for.

Mulder drove quickly to her apartment, it was only about ten minutes away from the hospital. As they approached her apartment everything looked like it was okay. When they opened the door it was a whole different story.

"What the hell happened?" Megan asked herself as she walked in the front door. All of her belonging had been thrown to the middle of the living room, even the furniture.

"It looks like someone came looking for me." She looked back at Mulder in desperation, but he was paying attention to something on her wall. It was the same substance he had found in the hospital room.

"It looks like you've been slimed."


	8. Over here

It was now nearly 9:00 pm and Dana Scully had just stepped out of the shower when she heard someone knocking at her door. She didn't even bother checking to see who it was. As she opened the door she was made fully aware of the fact that she was wearing only a towel.

"I uh, sorry I can come back." Her appearance seemed to make Mulder a little hot under the collar. This made her smile a bit inside.

"No, its fine. Come in. I just tried to sneak in a shower." She walked back into the bathroom and put on her towel. Mulder turned on her TV and yelled to her from behind the bathroom door.

"I tried to take Megan back to her apartment, but when we got there it looked like someone had ransacked the place. I didn't feel comfortable leaving her there, so now she's staying in my room." As he finished Scully emerged from the bathroom.

"I also found more of this in her apartment." He fumbled through his pockets looking for the tissue he had used to gather some of the substance in.

"Damn, it must have fallen out of my pocket while I was helping Megan clean her place p a bit." Scully sat down beside him

"I got the results back from the lab and, I'm not really sure if this means anything. They are completely stumped as to what it is. All they know is that it is a highly electrified protein. They have no idea as to where it may have originated from." Scully fumbled through a stack of papers she had lied out on her bed.

"Scully don't you see, it's from the poltergeist." Mulder said as he took the papers out of her hands and placed them back on the bed.

"Mulder, if that is the case, we're not ghost busters. Plus, I haven't seen anything that has convinced me that what we're dealing with is paranormal." As he listened to her, Mulder grabbed a pillow and a blanked off of the bed and began setting up a spot on the floor where he could sleep.

"That's why I'm here Scully." He replied with a smile. He removed his shoes and jacket and placed them near the dresser. Scully watched him as he tried to make himself comfortable on the floor. She couldn't help but smile as he desperately tried to find the right position. Finally she gave in.

"Mulder, will you just get up here." She said with a smile. He looked up at her for a moment before he gathered the pillow and blanket.

"I told you, you missed me." He replied with a smile. He settled himself under the blankets and closed his eyes. Scully reached over him to turn off the light, not denying anything he had said. For a moment they lie on completely opposite side of the bed. Then at almost the exact same time they both inched closer to each other. He extended his arm to around her back and pulled her closer, she placed her hand on his chest. They both just lie there in silence for a while.

"I missed this." Mulder whispered into her ear as she drifted off to sleep.

"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, please help me!" Both Agents jumped from there sleeping states when they heard Megan screaming from the other side of the wall. They both rushed out of their bed and to Megan's door. They were greeted by Reyes and Doggett who had gotten there first.

"I can't get the damn door open." Doggett yelled as her through his shoulder into the door repeatedly. Mulder joined in with him, and finally the door gave way. The room was completely dark, the shades had all been drawn and all of the lights turned off. Reyes turned on the lights immediately, but still Megan was no where in sight. Finally they heard a sobbing coming from underneath the turned over bed.

"I'm over here." Megan yelled to them from underneath the bed. Her voice was shaky and sobbing.


	9. Stumped

Doggett and Mulder rushed over to the now flipped over bed. The rest of the room was also a wreck. There had obviously been some type of struggle. On the count of three the men lifted the bed and set her free. Out of instinct, she ran directly into the arms of the person closest to her, Agent Reyes.

"I was just sleeping and all of the sudden everything in my room started to shake. I felt something pull me off the bed and then it all went black." Scully walked around the room looking for anything that would give her a hint as to who may have been in the room. All of the windows were closed and locked, and her door had been because they had knocked it right off the hinges.

"Why is this all happening to me? I didn't do anything to deserve this." Megan was now in hysterics as she spoke. She had gone through things the last couple days that no one would understand. She watched some of her closest friends disappear, been badly injured, and was now being terrorized but something she had no control over.

"You obviously did somethin to piss this…whatever off. As hard as its sounds we have to go back to that house and you need to show us exactly what you did." Doggett said as he tried to be the voice of some kind of reason.

"John we can handle that all tomorrow. As for tonight Megan can sleep in my room." Scully volunteered. With her arm around her shoulders Scully lead her into the next room. Mulder was the last person to leave the room. He just stood in there for a few moments looking around. A reflection in the mirror caught his attention. He looked over his right shoulder and saw his father in the mirror for a brief second. He closed his eyes tightly and when he opened them back up the reflection was gone. Assuming it was just because he had just woken up, Mulder turned out the lights in the room and left.

The next morning Scully woke up at around 9:00 am. It was a sunny day out, and the glare was resting right over hey eyes. Megan had insisted that she sleep on the love seat earlier in the morning. Scully looked over at her, she was curled up into a little ball with the pillow and blanket she had taken from her room. As she sat up out the bed, she felt a hand grab at her side.

"Where you going?" Mulder asked her with half of his face in the pillow. She could tell he was worried something might be wrong.

"I was just going to run to the little coffee shop I saw down the street and get some coffee and bagels. Everything is okay." She rubbed her hand over his cheek in reassurance, and let him fall back to sleep.

When she returned back to the room with breakfast, everyone was awake. Megan was in the shower, and Agents Doggett and Reyes had even made there way over to the room. It was a good thing she had bought extra. Everyone grabbed for there coffee like there lives depended on it.

"After last night, I even had a little trouble sleeping." Reyes admitted after taking a few sips of her coffee. This was by far one of the strangest cases she had seen.

"What do we know about these other kids Megan was with?" Doggett asked.

"Well she was with a girl named Jamie, her boyfriend Kyle, and his brother Steve. They all seem to have been pretty normal kids." Mulder replied, he had obviously done him homework.

"Did Megan say it was Jamie who was doing the speaking while this ritual went down?" Doggett asked. They all shook there heads yes and looked at each other.

"I can get a search warrant for her apartment within the next 24 hours. If we can find out anything like what she said, then we might be able to figure out how to close the gate she opened." As they finished there discussion, Megan emerged from the bathroom to an eerie silence.

"Gee, were you guys talking about me or something?" She joked with a smile on her face. It was nice to see her smiling for a change.

They all piled into one car and made there way back to the Cromwell house. As the pulled into the driveway, Megan became visibly shaken.

"I don't know if I can handle this." She was fighting back tears as she spoke. Scully squeezed her hand as they walked closer to the house. As they walked into the front room Megan found herself a little bit surprised.

"This place looks a whole lot friendlier in the light." They walked into the main room of the house.

"This is where it happened, right here." She sat down in the middle of the floor.

"The light you explained, where did you see it coming from?" Scully asked her. She pointed directly above where she was sitting.

"It was right there." Suddenly the windows began to shake.

"See this is how it started. It's happening again." She stood up from the floor.

"Get her out of here!." Mulder yelled to the other Agents. They all ran out of the house quickly. As soon as they reached the front gate to the house, all of the windows in the house seemed to shatter simultaneously.

"We have to get that search warrant." Reyes said as she looked around at all the other Agents. They were all just as frightened as she was.


	10. Taboo

"Why do you need a search warrant?" Megan asked. She hadn't heard there prior discussion about it in the motel.

"Well, see Megan the law states that if you want to sea…" Reyes tried to explain to her, but was cut off.

"I mean, I know its purpose and all but, I have a key to her apartment." They all looked at her in a little bit of shock. They should have asked her that about that a while ago.

"So I say I just bring you guys, who are a couple of friends, over to her house. It sounds innocent enough to me." As Megan finished the statement she walked towards the cars. She was ready to get the hell out of there.

"It's the third house on the right." Megan instructed Mulder as the turned onto Jamie's street. Her apartment was a plain looking duplex. It was white with black shutters. She had lived on the bottom floor for almost a year now with her boyfriend. To Megan's knowledge Jamie had not ever done anything involving witchcraft ever before, but at this point she was willing to believe anything. As they approached the house Megan noticed that no one was home at all. This would make it a hell of a lot easier to get everyone inside without looking suspicious.

As they walked into the apartment, Megan noticed that everything was the way they had left in on Halloween night. How come nothing had gone through her place?

"Well, this is it. What are we looking for?" Feeling a bit accomplished for letting the agents in, Megan tried to act like she could help them further. Her question went kind of ignore, the only responses she got were muttered words and shaking heads.

"Well, her diary is underneath her mattress and I'd check her computer if I were you." Scully looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you know something you're not telling us?" She asked. Megan immediately defended herself.

"Oh, no no no. I just thought I might uh…let you know where, um, where you might find stuff." She was obviously a little nervous and Scully decided to take that as an honest no.

As soon as Doggett turned on Jamie's computer, he knew he had started looking in the right spot. The wallpaper on her computer was a pentagram.

"Looks like I hit the jackpot." He said to all the other agents as he began to search through her files. A file named Halloween that was first accessed on October 13th struck his attention. He double clicked the title.

"Agent Scully, I think you might wanna take a look at this." The file was about five pages worth of information on the Cromwell family. At the end of the information was some type of 'spell' to evoke spirits.

"She thought this was some type of game. She had no idea what she was really doing." Agent Reyes grabbed the papers from John and studied the spell carefully.

"She thought she would be able to have some type of control over the spirits once she had awoken them. She just wasn't strong enough. This is something that practicing witches don't even deal with." She placed the paper back down on the desk besides the computer.

"Do you know how to reverse it?" Megan asked from over on the couch

"Yeah, but last I checked the Catholic Church didn't like admitting to performing exorcisms." As Reyes said this, Scully remembered the mark she had on her neck from her cross. She gently ran her fingers over it. The topic of exorcisms was very taboo in the catholic religion. The topic was also very taboo with Scully.


	11. Reflections

"Apparently you need clearance from the Vatican for things like this." An exhausted Mulder said as he walked into the motel room. After the incident at the house, he had gone alone to a catholic church to ask a few questions.

"As soon as I mentioned the Cromwell house to the priest, he gave me this." Mulder handed Scully a little black book. There was no title on the front cover.

"Looks like we're going to have to do this ourselves." As Scully flipped through the pages, she saw several different pages involving the expelling of spirits.

"Mulder you heard Monica, we're dealing with something that not even people experienced with witchcraft deal with." The whole idea of acting as God frightened Scully.

"We have to try something. There is a life at stake here. She is in danger every moment we don't fix this." Mulder was now a little heated. They had all formed bonds with Megan during this investigation, and no one wanted to see her hurt anymore then she already was.

Out of frustration, Scully excused herself to the bathroom. She needed a moment of peace, and in this particular motel, a bathroom was the only place where she could be alone for more then 2 minutes. As she looked at her reflection, the faint appearance of dark circles under her eyes told a story. She was tired, frustrated, and deep down, scared. She gathered some cold water into her cupped hands and splashed it gently over her face. Grabbing a towel from the side, she patted her face dry. Something struck her as different out of the corner of her eye. She had blood coming out of her nose. The image brought back so many bad memories. She quickly wiped her face clean with the towel. As she looked at the towel, she noticed there was no blood stain. She looked at the mirror again to check if she was seeing things. It was no longer her reflection, it was not that of young Emily's. Scully dropped the towel to the ground, unable to do anything else.

"If you don't leave here, there going to kill you too." The sentence sounded so innocent coming from Emily's mouth, yet the message was loud and clear. As soon as she had appeared, she faded away. Scully stared into the mirror momentarily, seeing only herself. A knock at the door shifted her concentration.

"Scully, you okay in there?" She didn't respond. She only opened the door for him.

As he walked in it was obvious to him that something was gravely wrong.

"I saw her, she was…she was here Mulder. Emily spoke to me." Tears began to flood her eyes. Her body clasped into Mulder's arms.

Mulder quickly brought her out of the bathroom and sat her down at the edge of the bed. He put the few stray pieces of her long red hair behind her ears, and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Dana, you have to believe me. That wasn't Emily. They are just using her to get to you, their trying to break you. You can not let that happen. You and I both know you're stronger then that." He now kneeled down so that he was face to face with her. She looked sadly into his eyes.

"In Megan's room last night, I saw my father. He didn't speak to me but I saw him. They just want to break us. Be strong Scully, if not for you then for me because if I don't have you here I'm lost." His plea with her was out of complete desperation. He slowly traced the outline of her jaw with his finger and stopped at her chin. Bring her face closer to his, he kissed her gently. She accepted it and kissed back. They sat there for a few moments, until Mulder broke the silence.

"My knees hurt Scully." He had been kneeling down for several minutes now. She laughed out a bit, and slid back onto the bed. Her happily followed. He hovered over her body with his and continued kissing her. They had both waited for this, but not expected it to happen as a result of something so upsetting.

Soon they were both naked, and underneath the covers of the small bed. It was a good thing Megan had gotten another room. There hands explored each other excitedly.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Mulder whispered into her ear. His hot breath brushed against her neck. She only looked directly into his eyes, and he knew it was beyond want for the both of them. They each needed this, they needed eachother.


	12. Too Long

Mulder awoke slowly early the next morning. His senses were greeted by the warmth of a body next to him, and the overwhelming scent of jasmine. As his tired eyes slowly peeled open, he was pleasantly reminded of exactly who it was laying next to him. She had fallen asleep with her arms locked around his left bicep. Call it paranoia, but she had been afraid to let him go. It seemed like every time something went right for them, something also went terribly wrong. He carefully rolled on to his side, being sure not to wake her. He gently buried his nose in her hair, taking in the smell of her shampoo. He had not realized how much he had missed the little things about her, like the smell of her shampoo, the way she arched her eyebrows when he said something strange, or the light mole she had under her nose. All of these things made him smile when he thought of her. For a long time he just watched her sleep, taking in as much of her as he could at once. Back when they first started working together, he used to always volunteer to drive, that way he got to watch her sleep.

Without opening her eyes, she grabbed on tightly to the arm her rest across her waist. The comfort of his protection could not be put in to words. Slowly she opened her eyes and let them adjust to the little bit of sun light in the room. As she looked over at him, her gaze was immediately met by his. She smiled immediately, unable to hold it back.

"That was a long time in the making." He said smiling at her. His voice still cracked a bit from sleep. They were now both on their sides facing each other.

"It was well worth it…each time." She smiled timidly as her cheeks reddened a bit. It had been a long time for both of them, and they had never been able to wake up next to one another before. The first time anything had happened, Scully left in the middle of the night, and the last time Mulder was a fugitive.

"Monica called while you were sleeping, I guess she thought something was wrong last night, with all the noises your were producing I guess she had good reason." Scully let her jaw drop wide open.

"Calm down. I'm the one who should be offended. We're sharing a room and she didn't even give me any credit." He was now laughing out loud.

"I'm just kidding Dana. Calm down." She was very relieved. Being such a shy person and all, she would hate for any of her personal business to become public.

"I'm gonna take a shower sweetheart." He kissed her lightly and pushed himself up off the bed. She watched happily as his naked body walked across the room.

As she heard the water of the shower begin to run, she decided to close her eyes for a few more minutes. It was still fairly early. Just as she was about to drift back to sleep, she heard her room phone ringing. She lunged across the bed for it, knocking it off the receiver.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" She yelled as she reached to the floor to get the phone.

"Hel..uh Scully." She greeted the other end, a little out of breath.

"Dana, I'm just calling to make sure you are able to walk today. I was a little worried about ya after last nights show." Great. Awesome. Wonderful. This was exactly what she had wanted to hear from her female partner.

"Oh come on Dana, a little girl talk never hurt anyone." She laughed at the last comment Monica made, because she knew she was right.

"I'm sure I'll be able to manage Monica. But thank you for the heart felt concern." She replied sarcastically.

"We can have a girl session when we get back to D.C. chatty, but right now he's in the shower and I don't want him to know that I kiss and tell." She heard Monica laughing on the other end, and promptly hung up the phone. She wasn't all that embarrassed after all. The fact that it was Monica made it a lot easier, but she didn't have time to care. Her mind was so consumed with happiness that it wouldn't let her worry.


	13. The Return

**Ok, so I know this took me forever. This is really short but I'm crazy tired and have to wake up early. So lemme know what you think. Please read and review.**

John Doggett ran down the hall to his partners. They were all gathered together in the same room going over the case. He had just received a phone call that would change the entire investigation. He knocked sharply at the door. Monica answered the door quickly.

"John, what's wrong?" She asked concerned.

"Your not gonna believe this, but they found a body. They found Jamie on the side of some back road, and she's alive. They took her to the local hospital earlier this morning."

Everyone immediately reached for there jackets and began heading for the car.

"I'll get Megan." Mulder said as he ran out the door.

Jamie Phillis had been brought to the hospital in critical condition. She had obviously been subjected to horrible physical abuse. She had three broken ribs, a concussion, and countless bumps and bruises. When they found her on the side of the road, she was huddled up against a tree. He eyes wide open with fright. The police officers and hospital workers had tired to talk to her all morning but it was useless. She was in complete shock. In her mind visions of how her friends had been killed played over and over again. She saw there tortured faces and heard their blood curdling screams every time she closed her eyes. She questioned why she had been the one to get away, and why she hadn't been able to save the others.

"We're all federal agents." Each agent ran through the doors to the hospital with there badges out. Megan pretended to show a form of I.D. but for the most part hid in the middle of all the agents. She was willing to risk anything to get in to Jamie's room to see her. As the approached Jamie's room they were greeted by two uniformed police officers who granted them access to the room quite easily. Megan waited outside with Monica. The other agents wanted to speak to her first.

Jamie looked at the agents blankly and they stormed in to her room. Her face was sickly pale, and the whites of her eyes almost completely bloodshot. She looked far worse them Megan ever had. She looked over each agent carefully, her gaze fixing upon Mulder.

"You'll believe me, won't you?" She asked him desperately. Her voice was shaky and tears were beginning to form in her eyes.

"Tell me what happened Jamie. I promise I'll believe you."

Doggett and Scully watched in armament as Jamie spilled out her soul to Mulder. She spoke of forms of torture and pain that they had never imagined. She described in the greatest detail everything she had witnessed. After being tortured for almost a week straight, she was forced to watch her friends get killed.

"I physically could not close my eyes. It was like a nightmare, but so much more real and frightening." Her whole body shook as she recounted all of the events.

"You're not the only one who got away Jamie. You friend Megan is alive and well." Mulder immediately brought Megan in to the room. Both girls broke down emotionally and grasped on to one another as tightly as they could without causing pain or discomfort to the other.

"I thought you were dead." Megan said through her tears as she wiped her friends cheeks clean of tears.

"Jamie, we have to stop this from happening again." Scully said as she approached the girls. They all exchanged looks of doubt and fear.

"I think I know what to do" Jamie replied finally.


End file.
